cyber-GARDENS

A summer workshop by ecoLogicStudio sets out to create a series of "growing" experiments set within the emergent bio-farming network on the outskirts of Milan.

From 7 to 17 July, the Architectural Association (AA) will conduct a summer school set within the emergent bio-farming network on the outskirts of Milan, site of the 2015 World Expo. Cyber-GARDENing the city proposes a new form of bio-architectural design laboratory, where multiple growing practices are explored as the means to critically assess the future of urban agriculture and its potential to evolve into new bio-architectural landscapes and radical urban lifestyles. The teaching model of the lab is grounded in the experimental tradition of the AA and the design philosophy of ecoLogicStudio, who will run the workshop.

What is the future of food consumption, and what form will the new urban landscape of food production take? Can we imagine environments of novel culinary exploration, engineered from a hybridisation of traditional Italian practices, rites and festivals with contemporary digital design technologies, prototyping protocols and bio-gardening techniques?

This first productive atelier will embark on a series of "growing" experiments inspired by the achievements of the Slow Food movement, but radicalising its efforts through the deliberate crosscontamination of the traditional and the futuristic, the natural and the bio-engineered.
The workshop is open to students and professionals from the disciplines of architecture, urban, landscape, product and interactive design, biology, computer science and robotics. Gardening enthusiasts are welcome
The workshop is open to students and professionals from the disciplines of architecture, urban, landscape, product and interactive design, biology, computer science and robotics. Gardening enthusiasts are welcome
Aspiring cyber-gardeners will be able to explore and invent new hybrid design practices by combining digital growth simulations with biological sensing, robotic actuation with hydroponic cultivation, and cutting-edge rapid prototyping with traditional crochet. These bio-architectural playgrounds will materialise as 1:1 prototypical spaces embedded with biological life, sensing and actuating potential and digital computational power.

The workshop will be supported by a series of seminars, growing sessions with invited specialists, and dedicated algorithmic modelling and prototyping tutorials. The workshop is open to students and professionals from the disciplines of architecture, urban, landscape, product and interactive design, biology, computer science and robotics. Gardening enthusiasts are welcome.

The deadline for applications is 23 June 2012. More information is available at the AA website.

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